The art of organic living

Members of Kamarkattu Ecostore
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Kamarkattu Ecostore is putting its digital foot impressively forward. Swipe through its Instagram page (@kamarkattu.ecostore) to see how. The micro enterprise puts out visual stories that revel not only in its finished products, but also in the mundane processes that bring those creations to a sustainability shelf.

Before anything else, an outline of this Velachery-based enterprise’s place under a green sun. It fits the classic mould of a micro business. If you counted its workforce on your fingers, three fingers would remain unfolded: a seven-member, all-women production team. It offers skincare and homecare essentials with the circumflex accent placed firmly on top of sustainable alternatives. It notes it sources toxin-free, natural native ingredients and calls brown living an entry point for customers.

A micro unit, Velachery-based Kamarkattu Ecostore sells sustainable skincare and homecare products. Photos: Special Arrangement 
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Back to its Insta page, check out these posts. Titled “Plastic free & proud”, a reel with visuals of orders being tucked into eco-friendly packaging presents this line: “Every time we get your orders ready, we smile with pride on how much plastic we avoided.” And in a series of posts, it wove a visual story around the Yule season in December 2024, “embossing” recognisably Christmas motifs in its sustainable “soaplets (as it calls its small-sized soaps). So, there sat these eco-friendly soaps shaped like Santa, a Christmas tree and a train. This Insta story titled “Soapy’s Christmas Story” was accompanied by catchy Yule music. A note that went with it read: “Our girls got so excited with all these cute Christmas soaps and made a little story out of it… we will post the story one pic every day”. And they went on to do just that in the days that followed, creating two characters Bubbles and Soapy made out of their soaplets who would take the narrative forward.

Thendral Manimozhi, founder and prime mover behind Kamarkattu Ecostore laughs at the recent memory: the idea for “Soapy’s Christmas Story” came from someone interning with us, she reveals. The reels carry an endearingly personal touch which actually enables the viewer to gloss over the raggedness around the edges that they carry. The reels seem to have been created off the cuff with the staff themselves featuring in them with hurriedly readied scripts. But it is difficult to question their effectiveness, their dilettante quality being their strength as it inspires trust.

Thendral Manimozhi, founder of Velachery-based Kamarkattu Ecostore. 
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

This micro business’ strong digital moorings makes sense when you check its date of origin. It was born in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. A civil engineer with 10 years of experience in sales and marketing, Thendral crankstarted it following an aha moment. It was a moment of truth one that led her to question the effects of using regular toothpaste and soaps. Within the framework of that questioning, she discovered the motivation to create toxin-free products, promote conscious consumerism and also make it an affordable proposition.

The brand set off on its business journey at a leisurely trot, restricting itself to a few products such as bath powder, virgin coconut oils, natural Kajal and shampoo bars — the pandemic was looming large after all — and has expanded to deal in around 200 products now. Its product line would have expanded hugely, but in its core, it remains unchanged. Sustainability drives the business, with all the processes, ranging from sourcing to shipping being completely plastic-free. The packaging uses black and white paper, along with reusable or compostable cartons and newspapers as fillers. Even the packaging tape is plastic-free. Thendral underlines the fact that the brand avoids flashy packaging, opting for simple designs, which sometimes affects customer appeal but aligns with its vision of waste-free living.

The micro enterprise does not operate from a showroom, and is essentially a mail-order business and geography is out of the equation.

For its products, native raw materials are sourced from states such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi. The brand also resells coir, neem, and bamboo products from a cooperative society in Kanyakumari. Popular products include shampoo bars, dishwash bars and takeout dishwash powder, laundry powder and a face scrub made with 30 herbs and flowers in powder form. Thendral notes that they educate customers on sustainability by continuously reiterating the basics. She emphasises the brand’s focus on long-lasting products, holding up as illustration a shaving bar used by a customer for over 1.5 years. The name “Kamarkattu” reflects this philosophy, inspired by the lingering sweetness of the candy and the concept of “naked” products, free of toxins and preservatives.

Kamarkattu’s production team consists of eight women with a five to six hour daily work schedule to enable them to attend to personal responsibilities without any great difficulty.

Velachery-based Kamarkattu Ecostore uses plastic-free packaging  
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Thendral remarks that despite challenges such as higher production costs accruing from sustainable practices and reduced margins, the brand maintains affordability. Thendral observes that small sustainable brands often close down due to consumer scrutiny over cost and authenticity, while large brands engaging in greenwashing face less questioning. Despite the challenges, Kamarkattu continues to promote its values of sustainability and conscious consumerism, she adds.

Thendral is among sustainability champions that believe that when you have gone green, you have to shun silo thinking. You have to join the movement. She participates in a WhatsApp group associated with India Wasted 360 to exchange ideas and tackle challenges relating to sustainable businesses and living, and she connects offline annually with these like-minded individuals through a meetup.